


Underneath It All

by stylesforstiles



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, M/M, harry in yoga pants, ridiculous fluff, what more do you need really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-09
Updated: 2013-07-09
Packaged: 2017-12-18 07:12:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stylesforstiles/pseuds/stylesforstiles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Louis goes to yoga. His teacher is smokin' hot</p><p>This makes Louis ponder a lot of things</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underneath It All

**Author's Note:**

> Because Harry can do a back bend

There were only a couple of things in life that Louis Tomlinson knew for sure: he had a decent head of hair on him, a more than decent arse, he could survive a zombie apocalypse - look, he’s thought about this okay, he’s fairly compact and alright, somewhat short he supposes, which in theory means he should be pretty agile and quick on his feet, and he’s always got a constant stockpile of crisps on the go, so basically he had all his bases covered. Though sometimes he does worry about the size of his arse, because that has to be pretty tempting if you’re into eating flesh right? Hmm. Something to contemplate for another day.

To get back on track, the other thing that Louis knew for sure is that he would always take part in any and all ludicrous ideas that his best friend Zayn came up with if it meant that it was something Louis was going to be able to harass him about for years to come. Today was no exception. For some reason Zayn was on a health kick, though Louis should have known this would happen sooner or later once Zayn started modeling full time. So when Zayn told him that he had started going to yoga, Louis knew that he had to see this in person, because the fact that Zayn signed up for any exercise program in general was shocking in itself.

What Louis didn’t know was why being healthy had to start before eight in the morning. So the whining was about to commence.

“Zaynnnn, why the fuck can’t we be healthy at a decent hour, surely they must have afternoon classes,”

He rolled his eyes as he rummaged around in his pocket. “Some of us actually have to work Richie Rich, besides I figured it might be nice for you to see what the world looks like before noon.”

“Hey, I didn’t force my parents into being wealthy. And I’m sorry, but modeling is hardly work,” He glanced at Zayn, who had stopped to light up a cigarette. Louis stopped as well, folding his arms across his chest. “Are you seriously fucking smoking before a yoga class?”

Zayn looked at him incredulously. “What? It’s relaxing!”

Louis reached over and pulled it out of his mouth, stomping it out with his shoe. “Don’t be a tit. Now where is this stupid place?”

Zayn glared at him, but nodded his head in answer. “Down at the end of the block." **  
**

Zayn sulked the rest of the way, mourning the loss of his pre yoga smoke. Louis sighed as he tugged open the door to a very posh looking facility, ushering Zayn inside. “I’ll let you smoke two when we’re done you big baby. Just trying to be supportive of the old health kick you know.”

Louis tried to keep his face neutral when he looked around the reception area. He would not laugh at the ambient soundtrack playing in the background, or the poster on the health benefits of ‘veganaise’ or the organic juice bar that was off to the side. He wouldn’t. He did however chuckle at the bleached blonde guy that was slumped over at the registration desk, apparently having a snooze. Louis cleared his throat, tapping his finger on the desk.

The guy startled awake, bolting straight up, wildly blinking his eyes. Louis cocked an eyebrow at him. “Sorry to wake you up, just wondering if I can pay for my class,”

He scrubbed a hand over his face a few times. “Sorry, sorry. Late night,” He leaned to the side giving Zayn a little wave. “Hey, Zayn. S’bit early for you isn’t it? Liam’s class doesn’t start until ten today,”

Louis watched with growing interest as Zayn’s face turned a suspicious shade of pink. “Oh, um…yeah I have to work later today and I heard really great things about Harry’s class, so I thought I’d try it out…so, yeah,”

Niall just shrugged, oblivious to Zayn’s embarrassment as he handed Louis his change. “Cool. And enjoy, Harry’s great!”

Louis waited until they were in the hallway leading to the classrooms and lockers before yanking Zayn aside. “Excuse me Zayn Malik, but WHO exactly is Liam?”

Zayn did his best to appear really captivated by the painting behind Louis before finally relenting with a groan. “Fine. He’s the really fit instructor for the Ab Blaster class, and maybe I schedule my yoga classes so I can run into him, but he’s really fucking fit, Louis. Like…he teaches an _ab_ class. Fuck. He’s so fit.”

Louis nodded as he listened along, taking in all the information. He squinted his eyes, tapping a finger to his lips. “So wait, is Liam fit? I really couldn’t tell…”

Zayn smacked him in the arm, walking backwards to the change rooms. “Don’t be an arsehole,”

“It comes naturally, I can’t help it. Hey, where are you going?”

Zayn looked at him like he had gone mad. “To change.”

Louis watched him disappear behind the door and looked down at his own Nike shorts and vest. What the fuck was he changing for? He shrugged, opening the door to the classroom and quickly made his way to the back of the room, placing his mat down like the other people had done around him. He sat down on it and did a quick survey of the room. There were the standard scantily clad girls and gay men that definitely came to class for the socializing aspect more than the actual exercise, which Louis could not blame them for one bit. There were a few hippy looking mother fuckers, a handful of old people, and to top it all off, an altar of scented candles at the front of the room.

Louis dropped back onto his mat and covered his eyes with his arm. Scented candles, what the hell. Could it get more ridiculous, he wondered? He got his answer when Zayn flopped down beside him a few minutes later. Louis dropped his arm and felt hysterical laughter bubble up in his throat when he took in his outfit. He sat up, waving an arm up and down at him. “This isn’t a photo shoot, Zayn, Jesus Christ…”

Louis lost his train of thought as soon as their instructor entered the room. He introduced himself as Harry and started talking about what the class entailed, but Louis couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything but the acres of tanned skin in front of him. His body seemed to go on for an eternity and Louis was already considering building a beach house on some of the square footage of Harry, and happily live there forever, surfing in the waves of his hair. Louis really didn’t know what he was talking about, but it sounded great in his head.

Louis had no idea until today that his favorite thing ever was curly haired yoga instructors, who wore hysterically absurd headbands and the tiniest pair of Lululemon workout shorts he had ever seen, not to mention _all_ the tattoos. The tattoos, yes they were fucking hot. Wait, was that a giant butterfly? Whatever, still fucking hot. Also, it was fair to say he looked good naked, because he pretty much was naked right now, and Louis was 99.9% sure he was having a mental breakdown on a Tuesday morning at some pretentious, overpriced yoga studio.

Louis scowled over at Zayn, hissing under his breath. “I hate you for bringing me here,”

Zayn’s eyebrows shot up, a look of surprise crossing his face. “But I didn’t do anything?”

Louis gave Zayn a once over, taking in his own head to toe Lululemon gear – how did Zayn even know what that store was – and what the fuck, he had a fucking smoke tucked behind his ear. Christ. “You didn’t tell me the instructor looked like this!”

Zayn looked over at Harry and then back at Louis, still confused. “Oh Harry? Yeah, he’s great!”

Louis was seething. “Yes, everyone keeps saying he’s great, but no one mentioned that he was some curly haired pillar of sexual frustration out to ruin my life!”

“Louis, you’ve literally been in here for two minutes,” Zayn said flatly.

“Exactly! 120 seconds, each of them more life ruining than the next!”

Before Zayn could address Louis’ insanity, Harry was motioning for all of them to stand up. Louis might have been the first one up on his feet; because he was ready to do anything Harry told him at this point.

Or at least Louis attempted to anyways, because he struggled through nearly every single yoga pose. It’s not like he was doing it on purpose, it was just really hard to watch all 800 of Harry’s abs flex when he was upside down. His frustration had reached maximum capacity nearing the end of the class, causing Zayn to snap at him.

“You need to harness your chi, or whatever the fuck it’s called.”

Louis breathed out a sigh of relief when they were finally told they could lie down on their mats. He rolled closer to Zayn, whispering low. “The only thing I want to harness is a sex swing to my ceiling and ride him into the next century.”

Zayn pushed him away, rolling onto his back. “That’s a bit lofty, maybe start out small, like introducing yourself for one thing.”

Louis rolled onto his back as well, contemplating this as he stared at the ceiling. Why did Zayn always have to be so rational.

*

After class they ran into Liam, the fit ab class instructor, and Louis watched with glee as Zayn sputtered and blushed his way through their conversation. It didn’t take much before Louis rendered it was too painful to be near anymore, so he decided to check out the juice bar, which was guaranteed to be overpriced.

He perused the menu and scoffed inwardly at some of the ingredients; like what was almond butter, and why was it in a smoothie? And why the fuck was coconut water six pounds? He met eyes with the guy behind the counter, who was wearing a fedora and snapping his fingers, and honestly, nobody should be this happy working at a juice bar. Louis glanced at his name tag – Olly. Oh well fuck, he probably called himself Jolly Olly because he looked the sort that would do that.

“Hey buddy, what can I get for you?’

Louis chewed on his lip, contemplating one more time before placing his order. “Erm, how about the almost chocolate smoothie,”

“Brilliant! One almost chocolate smoothie doobie do coming up!”

Louis opened his mouth to tell this jackass never to sing his drink order back to him again or he would have no choice but to punch him in the face, when he was suddenly interrupted.

“That’s a great choice, it’s really good for you,”

Louis steeled himself, turning around slowly. And yet he still wasn’t prepared for the on slot of hotness that was Harry. “Don’t be fooled, I was just going for the closest thing to a milkshake.”

Harry giggled and flashed a wide smile at him. Louis wanted to throw himself into Jolly Olly’s blender.

“Oh, well, it’s made with raw coca so it has a lot of very good antioxidants in it. I promise it tastes really delicious though.” Louis was helpless to anything but stare dumbly at him, so Harry pressed on. “You’re new to class? I’ve never seen you before,”

‘Marry me’ is what Louis was thinking, but instead he went with. “Yes, my friend has been raving about the place (he hasn’t, but that was flattering wasn’t it?) so I thought I would check it out with him.”

Harry looked at him expectantly. “And?”

Louis was taken aback. Why was this magnificent creature still talking to him. “Oh, um, your class was great, though I’m pretty shit at yoga I have to say.”

“Really…I didn’t notice,”

Louis caught that cheeky little smirk. And he was definitely not planning their honeymoon after that. Louis wondered how Harry felt about Mexico. Harry sipping on margaritas. Louis sucking the lime and salt off his lips Louis sucking on Harry. Oh, well that escalated. They just kind of stood there watching each other. That was until they were shaken out of it by the Scat Man.

Louis accepted his smoothie with a mumbled ‘thank you’ through clenched teeth, and also noticed Zayn again, mouthing let’s go and tapping at his watch. Why was everyone trying to ruin this for him?

Louis gave Harry an apologetic smile. “Looks like I’m being summoned. I gotta run. Seriously though, great class,”

Harry leaned against the counter, a playful smile on his lips. “So, Louis, will I be seeing you again?”

Louis choked on his drink, driving him into a coughing fit. He knew his name. Oh god he must be psychic. He has the gift. Does he know that I’m thinking about him naked right now? Because he was. Then Louis glanced down at his cup briefly and thought dammit. His name was on the cup. Louis gave one more cough, hoping Harry would buy his fake coughing lies.

“Yes, I think you might.”

And with that Harry gave him a wink and turned to walk back into the studio. Louis watched him go and was left with his faux chocolate shake and wondering if Harry knew anything about tantric sex.

*

So Louis was basically getting into the best shape of his life because seeing as he didn’t work for a living, he had plenty of time to take all of Harry’s classes, each one more painful than the next. And definitely not because of the yoga, but for the torture that was Harry Styles constantly being shirtless. Louis was pretty sure he blacked out one day as he watched Harry contort his body into camel pose all while wearing a pair of black leggings, which clung to every defined muscle in his thighs, and Louis wanted to pour liquor into his v lines and drink it out of them, and wow Louis was upset.

On week three of his Harry fixation, Zayn finally had to put his foot down.

“Louis, I cannot listen to you drone on about how good he looks in a ponytail anymore. I just can’t. Please, for the love of all that is holy just ask him the fuck out already.”

Louis chewed on his thumb nail, pushing aside the book he was reading on healthy living, because he was researching for _Zayn_. He wasn’t at all looking up topics to discuss with Harry. That’s not why he bought a book by Deepak Chopra the week prior as well. Nope.

“Okay, okay…I can do this. It’s just dinner. I mean we go to dinner all the time. It’s not a big deal.”

Zayn reached over to squeeze his knee, getting off the couch to stretch out. “I don’t think me and you going to dinner is quite the same,”

Louis reached over to pinch the sliver of skin that was exposed from his t shirt riding up, making Zayn yelp and give him the middle finger. “Quit psyching me out if you actually want to do this. I know you’re all cocky now since Liam finally figured out you were a model and almost died on the spot.”

Louis remembered fondly as Liam’s mouth hung open when he casually dropped the ‘Zayn is a Gucci model’ nugget on him, and was even more pleased when Liam was the one struggling like a school girl with a crush the next time Louis showed up at the studio with him. Zayn was pretty confused until Liam started grilling him about his ads, and how he actually bought a shirt for the sole reason that Zayn made it look so good, and Louis was thanked handsomely later on when Zayn took him to his favorite restaurant and let him order obnoxiously overpriced things. Louis may have ended up paying in the end anyways, but it was the thought that counted. Plus Zayn finally had his date with the ab master. All in a day’s work Louis figured.

But he could do this. He asked gorgeous, charming, fit as fuck yoga instructors out all the time. Okay that was a lie, this has never happened in his life, but now it was as good a time as any. He waited until after class and tried to look at Harry’s eyes, and not the beads of sweat that were trickling down his tattoos. He swallowed hard.

“So, I was wondering Harry…maybe we could get dinner sometime?”

Harry started wiping himself down with a towel – wait, this was almost _worse_ than the sweat, let’s bring that back – and smiled, starting to answer when a voice sing sung out at the door interrupting them.

“Hey Harry!! I got your banana fanna fo ferry smoothie ready if you want to come and grab it!”

Louis shot Jolly Olly a look that he hoped would make him disintegrate on the spot. It didn’t. Harry gave him a thumbs up, all dimples and completely immune to things that were annoying apparently.

“Thank you, I’ll be right out.”

Louis closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. For a moment he had a stroke of brief fear – what if Harry was dating J.O.? Oh fuck please no…

“I’d love to, Louis.”

Louis opened his eyes, simultaneously relived and surprised. “Oh…alright. How does Saturday work for you?”

Harry nodded as he continued to wipe himself down. Louis started practicing his breathing exercises. This was just too much. Much too much.

“I teach until 7 if you want to just meet me here? I can shower and change, then we can go?”

Louis agreed of course.

And was left with the haunting image of Harry in the shower…and if suggesting they do it together on the first date was too forward.

*

Louis waited anxiously for Harry outside of the studio on a warm Saturday evening, wondering if he was too dressed up, or not dressed up enough. He figured jeans, a t shirt and a blazer were pretty standard, but he added bright red Vans to top it off because you know what? Despite his nerves, Louis was feeling saucy. He was double checking the address on his phone when Harry stepped through the doors, his hair propped back in a quiff, black skinny jeans suctioned onto his body, and a white knit shirt hanging loosely off his frame, just low enough on the neck line that Louis could see the tips of his tattoos. Look more like a walking orgasm why don’t you Louis grumbled under his breath, but plastered a toothy, crinkly eyed smile on his face regardless.

“All set? The place we’re going to is just a few blocks away.”

They started walking and Harry gave him a sideways glance, a shy smile turning up his lips. “You look different in regular clothes,”

Louis bumped his shoulder, offering his own little grin. “Good different or bad different?”

Harry just hummed and smiled and continued walked, his hands somehow stuffed into the pockets of his jeans. Oh so we were playing coy were we? Louis could do this game. They reached the restaurant and Louis held the door open for him, nodding that he go ahead.

“In that case, I think you look seemingly better with less clothes. But that’s just me.”

Okay maybe Louis didn’t know what the term coy meant. Harry shook his head as they sat down, his eyes sparkling in the dim light. Shit. Louis was so gone.

They chatted about their day, Louis not having much to offer since most of his day consisted of sleep and a rousing afternoon of going through modeling headshots with Zayn. He listened and offered input when he could as he glanced through the menu, blanching at some of his choices.

So Louis had it in his head that they should go somewhere that he thought Harry might like, which in Louis’ brain was a vegan restaurant. What Louis didn’t consider in the planning of this dinner was that he would probably have to eat too, because staring longingly at Harry probably wasn’t on the menu. He read the ingredients, cursing them in his head – honestly kale? What the fuck was that? Quinoa? How is that even pronounced? Or better yet, what the fuck is it? Gluten free???

Louis scratched his head and finally went with some sort of tofu stir fry, only because it had the words teriyaki sauce in it, and teriyaki was a safe zone for him. He ordered a beer, which was once again gluten free and Louis wondered why he was the last to know that gluten was something they were supposed to be free of. Why had he only heard of this today? Was gluten out there committing mass murder or something? What these health freaks really needed was a plate of chips and a pint of Guinness.  The Guinness slogan is ‘It’s good for you’ after all. Honestly.

Harry was watching him with amusement, toying with the label on his beer. “Louis, not that I’m complaining, because I am having a good time, but why exactly did you choose this restaurant?”

A flush spread across Louis’ face,  so much that he could feel his ears burning. “Oh well, Zayn is on this health kick you see, so he recommended it, and I figured you were into healthy eating too, so...”

Harry started howling with laughter, which only annoyed Louis because how did he look ethereal doing that as well? Harry placed a hand on Louis’, giving it a squeeze. “I appreciate the thoughtfulness Louis, but I do eat normal food you know. If I’m being honest, I’m kind of a pub food hussy. Can’t get enough.”

Louis zoned out for a moment after hearing the word hussy. Please don’t Harry. He shook it off, though his face was still tinged with embarrassment. “Great, now I feel like an idiot. That’s the last time I take suggestions from Zayn, though I should have known better.”

Harry shook his head, reaching for his hand again. “Don’t even worry about it, please. The company is quite good; it doesn’t matter where we are.”

Louis sat back and took a long sip of beer, smiling around the bottle. Harry thought he was quite good.

*

Despite his intial hesitation once the food was served, it turned out Louis’ tofu was masked in enough sauce that he deemed it edible. Maybe it was a bit of a weird texture in his mouth, but he was pretty positive he’s had worse things in there.

He paid the bill after much arguing with Harry, sending him outside with a playful push and the classic cheese ball line ‘your money's no good here’. Sigh… Louis thinks he was in love.

Harry pushed off the side of the building when Louis stepped outside, subtly taking in Louis’ profile.

“Did you want to come to mine for a drink? I just live down the block a ways,”

Louis calmed himself so that he didn’t sound as enthusiastic as he was inside, which if he were in an Olympic competition for enthusiasm he would have won a gold medal. Maybe even a silver and bronze as well. Because he really didn’t want anyone else competing for his Harry enthusiasm.

“That would be brilliant. Just as long has it has alcohol, and isn’t in any sort of smoothie form.”

Harry waved his hands in front of him. “No, no, I promise. I think I’ll save the smoothie making for Jolly Olly.”

Louis stopped short, pulling on Harry’s arm to halt him as well. “I thought I was the only one that called him that!”

Harry rolled his eyes, pulling out his keys to open the door of his apartment building. “Are you kidding? He started that nickname.”

Ha! Louis knew it. What a twat. He followed Harry down the hall and braced himself to be inside his flat. He was really hoping there wasn’t some weird yoga shrine in there like that fellow had in Eat Pray Love – shut up, Louis watched it one day when he was feeling sad and it just happened to be on TV, he would never rent it, nor read the book in its entirety, only to sob all over again. Never.

He peered around the living room after he kicked his shoes off at the door and was thankful it looked relatively normal. Not that it would have mattered either way, let’s be honest. But it was the principal.

Harry came out of the kitchen with two glasses of wine, offering one to Louis, who was suddenly feeling very parched. He licked a drop of wine off his lips, while casually ogling Harry, who was now barefoot with his jeans rolled up at the ankles, and in what fucked up world did that turn someone on. Because it was working. Louis tried to drown his horny thoughts with another sip of wine. He ended up almost chugging the entire glass.

Harry was looking at him similarly, just kind of taking in his features, while he sipped out of his own glass, also licking at an absent drop of wine on his lips. He placed his glass on a side table and stalked over to Louis, grabbing his as well. Louis watched with confusion as he put his glass next to his discarded one.

Harry stood in front of him, reaching out to wrap a hand around the back of his neck. “I need to put my hands on you.”

Fuck. Fuck. _Fuck_. That is not what Louis had expected. But who really cared, because he certainly wasn’t going to waste any more time when it came to Harry. He stepped up on his toes and connected their lips, weaving his fingers through the messy curls on the back of Harry’s neck. He may have needed to practice his yoga breathing again, because everything was just way too much. Harry was too good of a kisser, all soft lips and breathy whimpers and a teasing tongue, which made Louis wonder what else that tongue was good at.

Now Harry may have been tall, but Louis just took that as a challenge to himself to see if he could manhandle him. He continued kissing him as he backed them up against a wall, skimming his hands under Harry’s shirt, feeling along the warm skin and splaying his fingers in the deep cut of his v lines.

“Jesus Harry, you are insanely fit. It’s not even fair,” he mumbled in-between kisses.

He pulled back so he could look at Harry, and the sight of him breathless and panting was almost enough to make him falter and drop to his knees right there and never get up.

“Been thinking about this since that first class…you’ve been driving me crazy, Louis.”

Louis tugged on the hem of his shirt, easing it off and throwing it aside. He crouched down and grabbed onto Harry’s thighs, hitching him up until those miles of legs were wrapped around Louis’ waist.

He leaned in, pulling at Harry’s bottom lip with his teeth. “Me too Harry, you have no fucking idea.”

He held Harry up against the wall, mouthing at the jut of his collarbones. Even his _collarbones_ were sexy. Louis thinks he was having a religious experience. Who needed a yoga altar when you could pray at the altar of Harry’s collarbones.

“Bedroom?” he breathed out as he flicked his tongue along one of those birds that seemed to be eyeing him up.

Harry pointed down the hall and Louis didn’t need a moment, he was already turning them towards it, strengthening his grip on Harry as he continued to carry him.

He felt Harry’s lips at his ear, his tongue doing something to his earlobe that was making him increasingly harder…his _earlobe_ for fuck’s sake. He shivered with his whole body, and he swore he could _feel_ Harry’s smile.

“Just so you know, I’m really, really limber.”

Louis sighed happily.

God bless yoga.

 

FIN


End file.
